By ADRIAN STEWART CO

The Negros Island Region (NIR) Kingsmen recorded their eighth straight victory in the 2023 Professional Chess Association of the Philippines (PCAP) First Conference after a sweep of their matches on Wednesday night, March 22.

The Kingsmen opened the evening with a 16-5 domination of the Cagayan Kings before they followed it up with a 15-6 victory over Manila Indios Bravos as they remained on top of the Southern Division standings with an 18-1 record.

Against the Kings, the Negrenses scored a 5-2 victory in the blitz event behind the full points of David Elorta, Mari Jose Turquiza, Rogelio Antonio Jr., Ellan Asuela, and Joel Pimentel.

The Kingsmen also prevailed over Cagayan in the rapid game, 11-3, as Turquiza, Antonio, Asuela, Pimentel, and Jerich Cajeras scored two points each and Elorta settled for a split.

With the Indios Bravos as their opponent, the Kingsmen hacked out a 6-1 victory in the blitz game behind full points by Elorta, Turquiza, Asuela, Pimentel, and Ted Ian Montoyo, and split by Bernadette Galas and Antonio.

The Kingsmen also prevailed over the Indios Bravos in the rapid event, 9-5, behind Elorta, Galas and Asuela’s full two points, and split points courtesy of Turquiza, Antonio and Montoyo.

“These are good morale-boosting wins as we are now heading back to the South to face our rival Southern teams one more time in a single round-robin format,” Kingsmen co-team owner Antonio Olendo said.

Unlike the Kingsmen, luck was not on the side of the Iloilo Kisela Knights as they suffered back-to-back defeats to Indios Bravos (14-7) and Laguna-Dasmariñas City (13-8) to drop to 11-8.

Against Indios Bravos, the Kisela Knights bowed in the blitz event (4-3) and rapid game (10-4), while versus Laguna, the Ilonggos won in the blitz game (4-3) before bowing in rapid (10-4).

“It was [a] tough loss for us but [it was a] good learning experience for our team,” Kisela Knights head coach Hubert Canto said.

“We will definitely bounce back as we head back to facing our Southern Division group mates,” he added./ASC, WDJ